Celebrating this Year: Sukkot

This week marks Sukkot, the holiday of booths (or huts).

by Sheidle Fogelman

October 13, 2019

This week marks Sukkot, the holiday of booths (or huts). The seven-day Festival of Joy comes begins tonight, October 13, at sunset, commemorating the Clouds of Glory that G-d protected the Jewish people with during their travels in the desert following their exodus from Egypt 3,331 years ago.

Two of the primary mitzvahs of Sukkot are taking meals in the outdoor makeshift huts that are topped with branches, and the taking of the lulav and etrog: these are also known as the Four Kinds, the branches of a palm, myrtle, willow and a citron, which are held together in a symbol of unity, and blessed.

Chabad centers worldwide have built sukkahs for local and visiting Jews and offering many the opportunity to hold the Four Kinds. With traveling sukkahs now on the backs of pickup trucks, cruise ships and attached to bikes, you’re sure to find one near you! Locate your local Chabad center here to fulfill the traditional mitzvahs.

The sound of blaring sirens heralded a flashing motorcade of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars driving down her block. Friendship Circle staff members and volunteers followed in cars festooned with colorful balloons.

At the time, the twenty-five children enrolled in New York Hebrew met once a week at the Center for Jewish Discovery for two hours of Jewish studies. Eight years later, the Shanowitzes run classes in Gramercy, Flatiron, and Chelsea, with an enrollment of 130 children, ages three to thirteen.

Thousands of Chabad communities around the world found creative ways to celebrate together. Whether online, or drive-by, the themes of Jewish unity had particular resonance for the more than a hundred thousand participants.

This Sunday (July 1) is the 17th of Tammuz, a day of fasting and prayer that commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem. Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chairman of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Educational/Social Services, shares the significance of the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, from a biblical perspective.

This year marks seventy years since the Lubavitcher Rebbe appointed his first-ever emissary to establish a permanent Chabad presence. Lubavitch International looks back at the seven decades of impact that Chabad has had on the Jewish community of Morocco.

Thousands of Chabad communities around the world found creative ways to celebrate together. Whether online, or drive-by, the themes of Jewish unity had particular resonance for the more than a hundred thousand participants.